Based on the aspect that one looks at there are several types of research.
- Natural Science Research vs Social Science Research
- Pure Science Research / Fundamental Research vs Applied Science Research: The main objective of pure science research is to contribute to the body of knowledge something which will be ultimately put to some practical use. Application research is focused on solving some particular issue which has practical implications.
- Primary vs Secondary Research: In primary research original data is collected through an accepted research methodology. However, secondary research is done on existing secondary data. In any case, existing secondary sources of data as part of the body of knowledge needs to referred to understand what work has been done already in any given area.
- Exploratory Research (Not aware of the problem; useful precursor to more in-depth research) vs Descriptive Research (Aware of the problem; what, when, where and who of a phenomenon. It establishes factual picture of the object of study) vs Explanatory Research (Problem clearly defined; why and how; Correlational or Predictive; Explores the relationship between concepts )
- Cross sectional Research (Descriptive; At a point in time) vs Longitudinal Research (Descriptive; Over a period of time)
- Qualitative research (to study a phenomenon by gathering qualitative information and analyzing the same) vs Quantitative (to study a phenomenon by gathering and analyzing quantitative data)
- Theory-Building vs Theory-Testing. Inductive vs Deductive Research:
- Inductive Research: Researcher infers theories (concepts and patterns) from observations or data ie. It is Theory-building.
- Deductive Research: Researcher tests concepts and patterns known from theory using new empirical data. This also results in better theories by finding out which theory works in what contexts and helping in refining, improving & extending. ie. It is Theory-testing and Theory-Refinement/Improvement/Extension.
- Library (analysis of data from historical records / documents) vs Laboratory (small group study) vs Field (in the context)
Dr. Selvaraj Vadivelu 